The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1887-09-10
THE CRIMSON SCARF.

GLOW old, did you say?' asked the
Commander in chief.
"Nlneteen."
And the man?''
"A little older"
The COMMANDMENTS Chief pulled his
cigar at thoughtful intervals. The war
was by % years thing of the past, but
as head of great commercial enterprise
military title still chung to him from
out of his war experience, and he did not
dislike it, for some of his war memories
appeared to be his most cherished mental
treasures. SO he debated with his cigar
over the two young people whose senti-
mental rashness had brought them into
public notice, and as he debated he was
looking backward over the diverse pano-
rama of two decades of life, through the
ritted smoke clouds of great revolution
at little drama that seemed almost a
dream, but which to him was, perhaps,
the best remembered incident of all the
five years fgnt. And when he told it,
half musingly, the listeners did not won-
der. The ways of fate are very diverse,
and it sometimes happens to the least
imaginative in the madding crowd that a
face which is looked iuto only for no
ment is never forgotten in all the length
of the years that follow. Perhaps it was
CT N no 80 ;oc
haps not. In any event, nobody dared
to ask.
"ln the fall of 1861" he began, Il was
stationed with a detachment at Paint
Rock, Ala. We were drawing on the
enemy for supplies; foraging, in fact.
Our crackers and bareback we got from
Stevenson, but for fodder for our horses
and anything to add sumptuousness to
the appearance of the frying pan we had
to depend on the country. For some
weeks had sent out the wagon train to
the east, the southeast and down the
valley of the Paint Rock creek. The
only direction left for investigation was
the west, where, at distance of twenty
one miles. was Huntsville, then the CAPT
tai of Northern Alabama, which, up to
the time of the war, had been wealthy,
aristocratic and fashionable city. Well,
one pleasant morning sent the wagons
across the creek and followed them with
guard of twenty men. 1t was reported
from time to time that the country ahead
of US was full of rebel guerrillas, but we
saw no signs of them, and for two months
had no trouble whatever with any foe.
'After crossing the creek the wagons
took road which wound along the foot
of spur of the Blue Ridge mountains,
which rose green, heavily wooded and
picturesque at our backs. We passed
several small clearings and plantations,
whose log houses were filled with hot
blooded and hot tempered Southern
women, whose evident desire to fay us
with their finger nails rather interfered
with that sweet spirit of hospitality for
which the South is famous. At a dis
lance of seven miles halted the detach-
ment at a cool but sinister-looking place
in the road, known to all the country
round about as The Cap
"'The Gap was the entrance to pass
through one of the outlying mountain
spurs. 1t was a deep hollow, heavily
wooded. The dense growth of towering
pines aud frs grew close to the roadside.
The woody spaces were so filled with un-
dergrowth and blocked by fallen trees
that as you peered into the dark re-
cesses of the forest on either side hos
tile army might have been sheltered there
without your being able to perceive a
button. | remember the looks of the
place because the first time | saw it it
made me rather uneasy, and the last
time but one that | saw it l came near
staying there for good, as did, in fact,
some other poor fellows who were not SO
fortunate.
"Well, after a rest, we kept on, and a
few miles further We came on a planta-
ton of $50 acres, with large and com
Portable looking residence near the road
side. The wagons had reached there
long before us. They were being rapidly
| filled from row of well-stored corn cribs
at the back of the house. | had Just
gotten off my horse near the door when
two girls came towards me, and if were
not telling this story, gentlemen, | would
honestly declare that they were the two
prettiest girls ever saw in my life.
They were both tall and slender, with
graceful and womanly figures. They were
dressed in dark blue calico, and had no
artificial aids to their fresh young beauty.
Their faces were intelligent and full of